The Latin Legacy
327
Further simplifications followed The distinction between nominative
and oblique case has disappeared in all modern Romance languages
On Italian territory the oblique form of the plural disappeared Only
the nominative survived (Latin mun (nom. pi)—Italian tnuri). In
France, m Spam, and in Portugal the nominative plural disappeared.
SINGULAR
PLUHAL
NOM
OBL
NOM
OBL
1
lima (moon)
lune (mo
luna(s] ons)
II
caballu(s) (ho
caballu rse)
cdbalh (hor
caballo(s) ses)
III
cam(s) (di
cane
3g)
cane(s) (dogs)
and the oblique (originally accusative) form with a final 5 took us place
(Latin ace pi muros—French murs) Case distinction died last in Gaul
In the oldest French and Provenjal texts some nouns still preserve
the distinction between a subject and an object case as the following
table shows'
SINGULAR
PLURAL
NOM.
OBL
NOM
OBL
Vulgar Latin
munt*
muru
mun
r/'vros
Old
French
Modern French
murs
mur
mur
murs
mur
murs
The case-marks of the adjective shared the same fate as those of the
noun Meanwhile separate neuter forms disappeared There were two
reasons why the noun-form came nearer to that of the adjective. One
is the disappearance of two families of noun-behaviour owing to the
absorption of the fourth and fifth declensions (p 317) so that the
characteristic affixes corresponded to those of one or other remaining
f amihes of nouns The other was regulanzation of the gender-classes